Steve Smith is all set for one of the toughest challenge in his captaincy career when he will step in the field with his squad to face team India in a 4 match test series, which has started today in Pune

Having shown much of patience and scored lot of runs in his entire career it will be a test for the Australian captain to perform in this situation and a win from here will be remarkable on his part and a loss with effect adversely into his career

Harbhajan Singh predicted that if Australia play well, they'll lose 0-3. What are your thoughts on that?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, however I don't believe that's the case. I'm confident in the squad we've got here to compete against India. No doubt it's going to be a difficult series. India have played some very good cricket off late, particularly at home. So we're under no illusions there, it's going to be tough. But we've got the squad here that can compete in these conditions.

Do you think you go into the series as underdogs?

Yes, I guess we are the underdogs in this series. You hear comments like Harbhajan who expects us to lose 0-4. That's not how we feel. We want to compete here against India. It's going to be a tough series, they've got some quality players in their line-up from one to 11. So yes, it's going to be difficult. But I guess what I want to see from my boys is ability to adapt to the plans we have in place, show some fight and resilience in tough situations. There are going to be difficult moments in games, some key moments that we need to identify. Hopefully, we can have the skills in place and plans in place and mindsets in place to counteract those difficult moments.

Have you finalised the playing XI for this match?

We don't have a team as yet. We'll wait until the toss to announce that. But we've got a few options, got a very big squad here to cover all options. At the moment, the wicket looks incredibly dry for a day before the Test match. So it will depend on what sort of combination we want to go in with. We have a few options, we'll wait and see.